To what extent were Woodrow Wilson's 14 points adopted and implemented at the Paris Peace Treaty?

Woodrow Wilson was the President of the United States and led the American delegation. Wilson wrote “a list of proposed war aims which he called the Fourteen Points.” (www. ushmm.org, Holocaust encyclopedia 2013) The fourteen points were first enforced during a speech that was given to the American Congress in 1918 by Wilson himself. The speech Wilson gave was to “generate support for Wilson’s vision of the postwar world, both at home and also among allies in Europe.” (U-Shistory.com nd) The 14 points were very strong points and made sense of that time to create peace however they were successful to only an extent. The points were successful in providing a plan for the issues of that time. They clearly indicated what was to be worked on such as free trade, formation of the League of Nations and freedom of the seas, on a more international level and restoration of French territory on a more domestic level. His points “dealt specifically with territorial and political settlements” as well as “preventing war in the future.” (www.ushmm.org, holocaust encyclopedia 2013) He was also successful in publicizing them, however they were not all adopted in every country. At the Paris Peace conference Wilson was able to convince Germany, to sign the armistice because they believed it would create peace. His points were implemented well and successful to the extent of a few countries. At the Paris Peace Treaty Wilson realized that the support he thought he had was not there. The countries were not willing to support because it was hard to come to the fact that there would be peace with Germany. Also some of the points were unacceptable to countries such as Britain and France and un-realistic for others. Britain and France were countries that were both very involved in WW1. The USA was not as involved and did not actually join the war until 1917. Therefore Britain and France had many concerns with the 14 points because they believed them to be unjust and only to be written from the outlook of the US. For example point number 2, Freedom of the Seas, which indicates that there should be “Absolute freedom of navigation upon the seas, outside territorial waters, alike in peace and in war, except as the seas may be closed in whole or in part by international action for the enforcement of international covenants.” (u-shistory.com nd) Britain did not agree with this point at all because they are surrounded by ocean and

obviously wanted parts of it to be theirs. There was also the United States who was not open to adopting the 14 points and therefore did not agree with them. When Wilson met with the head of the governments of Britain, France and Italy to go over the terms “the "Big Four" had another plan altogether,” (www.ushmm.org, Holocaust encyclopedia) which took over his. The 14 points that Woodrow Wilson, the president of the United States, composed were successful however only to an extent. When he conveyed them for the first time in 1918 he was able to catch many countries attention and gain the interest of Germany, France, Britain and Italy. Although he gained interest, the countries were still dubious as to if the points could be applied to the real world.. At the Paris Peace Conference Woodrow Wilson’s points were accepted by Germany however in the end the France, Britain and Italy did not accept Wilson’s points along with the United States.